1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a guitar pedal board configured to maintain a position for one or more guitar pedals in an ergonomic arrangement. More specifically, the guitar pedal board disclosed herein provides ready access to one or more guitar pedals while simultaneously providing a musician with easy access to electronic connections for the one or more guitar pedals contained inside the guitar pedal board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Guitar pedals are devices, typically connected between a guitar and a guitar amplifier, that modify, enhance, alter, distort, or provide any audio effect on sound produced by a guitar. One or more guitar pedals may be necessary for a musician to produce an intended effect on the sound produced by a guitar. Guitar pedals may be used individually or may be daisy chained together. In other words, the output of one guitar pedal may be connected to the input of another guitar pedal, the output of which may, in turn, be connected to the input of another guitar pedal.
As musicians arrange guitar pedals to produce a desired sound, the combinations and orientations of guitar pedals can become unwieldly. In an effort to both maintain the organization and orientation of various guitar pedals, guitar pedal boards have been developed. Guitar pedals connect to guitar pedal boards, typically using hook and loop tape. Accordingly, guitar pedal boards provide a fixed position for each guitar pedal used by a musician and allow a musician to move all of his guitar pedals at once.
One exemplary guitar pedal board is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,023 titled “Mounting board for guitar effects.” The mounting board described by U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,023 is constructed using a series of horizontal square tubes connected between two vertical square tubes, forming open channels between each of the horizontal square tubes in the series of horizontal square tubing. Guitar pedals are disposed along the horizontal square tubing which allows wires associated with the guitar pedals to be disposed in the channels.
However, this mounting board experiences several drawbacks. First, the wires associated with the guitar pedals typically fall into the channels between the horizontal square tubing. Since the mounting board is open to the sides and back, uncontained wires can extend outside of the mounting board and present a tripping hazard while a musician is playing on a stage. Second, the uncontained wires appear unprofessional, which detracts from the perceived quality of the music being played. Moreover, uncontained wires are unprotected by the mounting board which leaves the uncontained wires susceptible to damage that may reduce the audio quality of the music produced by the musician. Third, the mounting board is relatively unstable. In order to arrange the guitar pedals on the mounting board on an incline, the mounting board provides a frame base horizontally across the underside of the mounting board (on the back side of the mounting board—e.g. the side intended to be furthest from the musician). While the underside of the frame base is positioned such that a bottom surface area of the frame base is in full contact with a surface, such as a stage, the opposite side of the pedal board rests only on one corner of the horizontal square tubing (on the front side of the mounting board—e.g., the side intended to be closest to the musician). Because support on the front side of the pedal board rests only on one corner of the horizontal tubing, the front side of the mounting board slides more easily than the rear side of the mounting board. This causes the mounting board to slide along the stage when the musician is playing and trying to manipulate the guitar pedals on the mounting board with his feet. The degree of sliding is only exacerbated when a musician is interacting with his equipment in an exuberant fashion. Finally, while all of the guitar pedals are maintained in a single position on the mounting board, transportation of the mounting board becomes an issue when the uncontained wires are free to hang between the various guitar pedals on the mounting board, presenting a further tripping hazard. Disconnecting and reconnecting each pedal between instances of transport, however, is time consuming, repetitive, and undesirable.
Another example of a “musical effects pedal retaining device and pedal board” is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,614,385. The pedal board provides a mechanical attachment for attaching a guitar pedal to the pedal board. Further provided is a support arm that connects a base assembly of the pedal board to a mounting member of the pedal board. Accordingly, the mounting member of the pedal board may be disposed at various angles by connecting the support arm to the base assembly in one of a plurality of support openings. Essentially, the support arm provides the mounting member, onto which the guitar pedals are installed via the mechanical attachment, an ability to adjustably incline according to a musician's preferences. Essentially, the mounting member upon which the guitar pedals are mounted is configured to be positioned at some angle by rotating the mounting member around a pivot and then maintaining that angle by installing the support arm into one of the support openings.
This pedal board also suffers from some drawbacks. First, when the support arm maintains the mounting member at a particular angle (on an incline), the wires that connect the pedals together are not contained within the pedal board, creating tripping hazards. Accordingly, a musician must choose between his ability to reach the guitar pedals with ease and the potential tripping hazard that may be experienced by himself or other performers on stage. Further, even when the pedal board is opened (e.g., set at on an incline), a musician may experience substantial difficulty in connecting wiring disposed between various guitar pedals that may be mounted on the pedal board. Second, because the mounting member is allowed to be temporarily positioned at some angle relative to the base assembly, the pedal board may not be also held completely closed. Rather, in order to close the pedal board such that the mounting member and the base assembly are parallel to each other, the supporting member is positioned in an elongated support opening (element 70 in FIG. 8 of U.S. Pat. No. 8,614,385, for example). In this case, the support arm allows the mounting member to rotate around the pivot point and open and close to some extent as the support arm moves in the elongated support opening. During transport the ability of the mounting member to rotate such that the pedal board may slightly open and close may result in the support arm catching and/or cutting one or more wires associated with the guitar pedals on the pedal board. Finally, a particularly exuberant musician may forcefully interact with one or more guitar pedals on the pedal board. If the mounting member is disposed at an inclined position during the exuberant musician's forceful interaction with the one or more guitar pedals, the support arm may buckle or break, reducing the effectiveness of the pedal board. A musician may therefore lose the advantages of the ability to incline a pedal board.
Accordingly, it is one object of this disclosure to provide a guitar pedal board that provides an ability to position guitar pedals on an inclined surface. It is another object of this disclosure to contain wires associated with one or more guitar pedals within the guitar pedal board. It is another object of this disclosure to provide an ability for the guitar pedal board to open and close to enhance access to wiring.
It is a further object of this disclosure to provide one or more support members internal to the guitar pedal board. Yet another object of this disclosure is to provide one or more retainer within the guitar pedal board to hold the guitar pedal board closed during use and transport. Finally, another object of this disclosure is to provide an attachment foot that allows at least two pedal boards to be mechanically connected to each other.